LOS ANGELES — It was an echo that Theo Riddick had never let sleep. Notre Dame got the ball with 9:10 left and an unsteady, 19-13 lead Saturday night. Hardly anything was at stake, except a shot at the only college football championship that we have, plus a major self-esteem implant for the suffering fans of yesterday’s college football kings.

Riddick is a running back turned receiver turned running back, a senior from the tough central New Jersey town of Manville, who had known 3-9 under Charlie Weis and now was looking at 12-0 under Brian Kelly.

He took the season into his hands. He ran for 20, and then after Cierre Wood took two carries, he ran for 15. Notre Dame got all the way to the USC 2-yard line doing nothing but pulling, trapping, running and cutting back and, critically, rejecting USC attempts to tackle.

Notre Dame only got a field goal, which was its pattern all night, but led, 22-13. And after the Irish turned the Trojans back without a point on the goal line, Riddick chugged out of there with 12 yards, setting up the final kneel-down.

Afterward, Riddick was kneeling for nobody.

He admitted that he still clearly heard the words of USC linebacker Chris Galippo, last October in South Bend: “At the end they didn’t call those timeouts, they just quit. And that’s what Notre Dame football’s about. They’re not like USC.”

Marc Tyler chimed in, too, when Notre Dame allowed the Trojans to run out the clock at the end of a 31-17 loss: “That’s what happens when you beat them down. They didn’t want to play us no more.”

Galippo later apologized. The Irish said nothing, at least until late Saturday night in the Coliseum, when the Trojans fell to 7-5 and, for the first time in 19 years, failed to beat UCLA, beat Notre Dame, and get to the Rose Bowl.

In truth the motivation was self-evident. The Irish came in ranked No. 1 and would graduate to the BCS national championship game if they won. They have not won a national title, theoretical or controversial or mythical or otherwise, since 1988, and many of their fans had doubted they ever would again.

And, in truth, they play a dated, soporific brand of football that, in this day of no-huddle ping-pong, is quaintly refreshing.

The Irish ran for 222 yards on the Trojans, never turned over the ball, held possession about five-eighths of the time, and gave USC’s glittery playmakers only one touchdown.

USC fans left with the assurance they have a quarterback for 2013, since Max Wittek displayed startling arm strength and a high comfort level, despite two interceptions and a crucial fumbled snap on third down.

They also saw Marqise Lee make a brilliant, one-hand 53-yard catch that moved Wittek into position to get one of the two scores USC needed.

USC then got a first-and-goal on the line. But it called two fruitless sneaks by Wittek. Gaining confidence, Notre Dame sent Matthias Farley and Kendall Moore into the backfield to explode a third-down run by Curtis McNeal.

That enabled Lane Kiffin to try that ever-popular fourth-and-short pass to the fullback again. Last week it went to Jaleel Pinner and didn’t work. Here it went to Soma Vainuku, who couldn’t come up with it, with a frustrated, wide-open Randall Telfer right behind him and with Lee and Robert Woods decoying somewhere.

Lee caught five passes for 75 passes, four for 22 if you take away that bomb. Silas Redd averaged 6.4 yards per carry and got called only 12 times.

We all know about big plays. Notre Dame wins by dominating the little ones.

They get out of the huddle early and have the whole play clock to get aligned. They tackle for keeps. They do not gamble, even on the most innocent-looking fourth downs. They seem to know that three points are more than zero, and that negligible plays are preferable to negative ones.

“That is how we play,” Kelly said. “The whole game was managed the way we’ve done all year. Minimize the big plays, and the quarterback (Everett Golson) was able to manage the run game. This is how we got to 12-0.”

And Riddick had 20 carries for 146 yards.

“If you want to know the Fighting Irish, look at Theo Riddick,” Kelly said. “You just have to look at his uniform tonight and you know all about his toughness.”

One year-long stain was already washed off.

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